Farewell, Wildcat.

I just wish CP could have handed this off to a park like Kennywood or Knoebels. ...Or stuck it inside the Crypt box at Kings Island (marketing it as a new 2013 ride), or somewhere else within the Cedar Fair chain. The Crypt was another sudden ride closure this year I wasn't happy with. At least the Crypt was clearly in terrible shape and limping along, making its closure understandable / predictable.

Anyway, I really think this was a terrible move for the first year of Ouimet. No matter how small of a role he played in WC's removal, it really made the whole Luminosity project look poorly planned, which will cast doubts on the leadership.

Walt said:
Ridership last season was around 400,000.

Almost as much as Dragster's first season (562,438).

I am a bit sad to see the ride go, especially without a proper farewell like Demon Drop.

I'd like to think that this was due to a significant failure. If this was for more space, they could just move it somewhere else, as the ride was designed to be moved. If the ride was still in good working order, and they didn't want it, I'd hope Cedar Point would put the ride up for sale so it could operate somewhere else. Probably get more money for it too. Only if the ride is listed for sale for an extended time and doesn't sell does the ride get scrapped.

Makes me wonder if they considered selling it. Maybe for whatever happened, they thought it would be more beneficial to scrap it rather than fix it. Maybe they figured Wildcat's value was too low to try to sell. It's too bad they couldn't just move it Michigan Adventure since they seem like they need a couple more good roller coasters to be a great park. Plus this way, it could have stayed in the Cedar Fair family.

or Geauga Lake. ha.

Ffej said:

Anyway, I really think this was a terrible move for the first year of Ouimet. No matter how small of a role he played in WC's removal, it really made the whole Luminosity project look poorly planned, which will cast doubts on the leadership.

And what if it played no role at all?

Honestly, I don't see why they can't strip Wildcat of its chain lift and brakes, replace them with new engineering equipment and MOVE it somewhere else. It's not much larger than the Dodgems ride.

And could someone please answer this?:
Is this whole "2 new coasters for 2013" thing legitimate, or is this just something Screamscape just made up?

If this was a planned announcement, it would have been announced late on (a) Friday so that it was essentially forgotten by the Monday/weekday news rush. However, it's all over the local news...

I'm in the camp that the ride had a mechanical/state inspection failure.

I can't believe there are people here that believe there is a conspiracy! All roads point to luminosity! The entire project was planned last minute, and while a great idea poorly executed. Yesterday Park Execs gathered in front of the ride, looked at how cramped the area was and decided to scrap the ride. Period! And even if that's not the case, who cares? The ride is going bye bye. Get over it!

Tilt-a-Whirl said:
I can't believe there are people here that believe there is a conspiracy! All roads point to luminosity! The entire project was planned last minute, and while a great idea poorly executed. Yesterday Park Execs gathered in front of the ride, looked at how cramped the area was and decided to scrap the ride. Period! And even if that's not the case, who cares? The ride is going bye bye. Get over it!

Because that's totally just as plausible as any of the conspiracy theories or of just a plain old catastrophic mechanical failure.

If it's something as simple as mechanical failure I would love to see the park just come out and say that. Twitter or even the seldom used Blog would be a great avenue to admit that.

If it was a mechanical reason (it didn't pass inspection, or something broke) that is a valid reason to remove the ride. With Luminosity, might as well remove it while all the construction is going on so you can expand without having to redo a bunch of work next year!

Also announcing why it was removed would stop the rapid rumors and conspiracy going on now. Of course no press is bad press so they may be dragging it out. But also it was just announced today so they still have time to say something.

They did announce the reason!!!! They said it was to expand the plaza (a fancy way of saying "there wasn't enough room")

Tilt-a-Whirl said:
They did announce the reason!!!! They said it was to expand the plaza (a fancy way of saying "there wasn't enough room")

You need to calm down dude. Take a deep breath and realize that there were actually people who cared about this ride. Maybe you didn't, but others did. A little respect please.

Don't know if this was said, but the 2012 park map proves that it wasn't planned and that it was a late decision, seeing as it was put on the map.

Wicked Twister 90 said:

And what if it played no role at all?

If Ouimet played no role at all (which I highly doubt), it still shouldn't have been done. Wild Cat's sudden removal just made Luminosity's planning look awful. When you're investing $6 million into a new attraction, especially right out of the gate under a new CEO, you don't want to make questionable decisions.

Tilt-a-Whirl said:
"there wasn't enough room"

I'm sorry, but hat is ridiculous. If they seriously went this far with a project before having any idea that there wasn't enough room, people need to be fired for gross incompetence.

Tilt-a-Whirl said:
They did announce the reason!!!! They said it was to expand the plaza (a fancy way of saying "there wasn't enough room")

You see I don't really see that. If all they wanted was more room I think they would have dismantled the ride, placed it in storage (probably in Mean Streak's infield) for a year or two while they decided if it was worth sending to another park, placing elsewhere in CP, or selling off.

To destroy a perfectly functioning (PORTABLE) ride, just for a little more room seems excessive to me. Of course if you want to bring up the conspiracy there could be other reasons they decided to scrap it ;)

The whole expanding Celebration Plaza part of the release just sounds like they are saying, since Wild Cat will be removed why don't we go ahead and expand this here. And it will sound better in the press!

It just doesn't seem to be a fully thought out plan either way. Which if it really did happen just today (from decision, announcement, and starting demolition) then I can believe that. Of course unless there was a mechanical reason and it wasn't worth it to fix it to the point of moving it or selling it.

I still expect that parts of the ride will be reused. The prox switches, advancement wheels, brakes, and probably parts of the controls will be saved I am sure. I could even see the cars being saved and sold to another park that has one. Probably just the steel structure will be destroyed.

Ffej said:

Wicked Twister 90 said:

And what if it played no role at all?

If Ouimet played no role at all (which I highly doubt), it still shouldn't have been done. Wild Cat's removal just made Luminosity's planning look awful. When you're investing $6 million into a new attraction, especially right out of the gate under a new CEO, you don't want to make questionable decisions.

The only people I think who are saying this makes Luminosity look bad are the people who think it's the major reason it's leaving. But it isn't. Wild Cat was ready to go this season regardless of the show. Had its crew. Had its budget. Then they announce it's leaving suddenly and without warning.

I totally believe something mechanical happened. I think I know what it could be but I dont want to get started in stuff that I dont know about.

Looking at this situation objectively, it seems CF was put between a rock and a hard place between the installation of Luminosity and the removal of WildCat. Yes, if you look at the 2012 park map, WildCat is still pictured, but so is the giant screen. No sign of Luminosity can be found either. Since this project was so last minute, I think it's entirely possible - not probable - that planners/engineers/designers/contracters...SOMEONE decided there needed to be more audience space. (WildCat was occupying some prime real estate.)

On the other hand, WildCat IS old, and I think we're all aware: it hasn't necessarily had the best track record over the last year or two especially. The fact that WildCat was being tested a few days ago and a previous post inquiring whether or not a relative still had a job may suggest the decision to close WildCat came from a recent malfunction.

A good PR department knows not to stain the name of its employer, at least not until the full scope of the situation is realized. HYPOTHETICALLY...assuming the cause of this decision affected safety, a solution would be to get rid of the ride. Associated problems would leave the park with the metal. I am not, in any way, suggesting that this was the case, but it's one possibility.

I'll be interested to see if they install some sort of elevated seating for Luminosity in WildCat's place. If they do that, though, I would hope they plan to move the control booth stack back or to another location. I can't imagine they would put bleachers behind the control booths. Call me crazy, but that seems like a lot of work to retrofit something that was just installed.

I can't think of any sudden catastrophic failure that could have occurred with Wild Cat. The things I could see it being closed for, like decaying steel structure / track, should have been spotted well in advance of planning a $6 million show.

You know...something like this: "Gee, Wild Cat doesn't have much life left in it. Let's remove that and place Luminosity there. That way we can go for a cleaner look, not have to mess with Iron Dragon's area, and leave the original bypass lane intact."

So the park and company decided to just spend the money on getting ready to run this season, spend the electricity to run it for testing and even get a crew squared away for it just to say "Gotcha"? Yes, I am sure they knew we all were watching like hawks so they just wanted us to play along for awhile.

The removal may have planned, but I am on board saying it wasn't this year.

WildCat was testing for the season and just recently underwent the ODA Inspection (maybe that had something to do with it). They wouldn't want to get rid of it this close to opening if something didn't happen.